Thorpe, D(avid) R(ichard) 1943-

views updated

THORPE, D(avid) R(ichard) 1943-

PERSONAL: Born March 12, 1943, in Huddersfield, England; son of Cyril and Mary (Avison) Thorpe. Ethnicity: "British." Education: Selwyn College, Cambridge, B.A. (with honors), 1965, M.A. (with honors), 1968.

ADDRESSES: Home—94 Grange Rd., Banbury, Oxfordshire OX16 9AU, England.

CAREER: Charterhouse, Godalming, England, schoolmaster, 1965-97; Oxford University, Oxford, England, Alistair Horne visiting fellow of St. Antony's College, 1997-98, senior member of Brasenose College, 1998—. Cambridge University, archives fellow of Churchill College, 1986; British Broadcasting Corp., historical consultant for a documentary program on the career of Sir Anthony Eden, c. 2000.

WRITINGS:

The Uncrowned Prime Ministers: A Study of Sir Austen Chamberlain, Lord Curzon, and Lord Butler, Darkhouse Publishing (London, England), 1980.

Selwyn Lloyd, J. Cape (London, England), 1989.

Alec Douglas-Home, Sinclair-Stevenson (London, England), 1996.

The History of Compton Verney House, Warwickshire, Peter Moores Foundation (Compton Verney, Warwickshire, England), 1998.

(With others) The Later Lives of Prime Ministers (radio program), British Broadcasting Corp., 2000.

Eden: The Life and Times of Anthony Eden, First Earl of Avon, 1897-1977, Chatto & Windus (London, England), 2003.

Contributor to reference books and to other works, including Telling Lives, Macmillan (London, England), 2000. Contributor to periodicals.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Biographical research on twentieth-century British politics.

SIDELIGHTS: D. R. Thorpe once told CA: "As a teacher of British political history, it struck me how much attention was paid to prime ministerial and presidential figures, whereas, with failure sometimes being more interesting than success, those who had just failed to attain the top of what nineteenth-century prime minister Benjamin Disraeli called 'the greasy pole' sometimes had as great an influence. For this reason I embarked on my study of three of the most celebrated 'near misses' of British politics. Austin Chamberlain was an important figure of the Chamberlain dynasty, and Lord George Curzon a crucial figure in Britain's imperial history, but of the three it perhaps could be claimed that Lord Butler left the most important legacy with his 1944 Education Act and his work in reforming Conservative philosophy and policy in the late 1940s. Selwyn Lloyd, the subject of my second book, though never a serious candidate for the highest office, was a crucial figure in the post-war Conservative Party, making important contributions in broadcasting policy and occupying two key roles—the foreign secretaryship and the chancellorship of the exchequer—at times of great controversy. His career was one that needed assessment and fortunately his full papers at Cambridge University made that a possible and rewarding task."